2009 Th 531 Toward an Abrahamic Family Reunion: Issues of Religion and Identity* Wednesday Afternoon: 3:00 – 5:50 PM Room: Carney 103 Instructors: Rev. Raymond Helmick, SJ and Dr. Rodney Petersen, Dr. Abdel-Rahman Mohamed and Rabbi Sanford Seltzer, with Guest Lecturer Jerome Maryon, Esq. I. Course Description Jews, Christians and Muslims are commonly referred to as members of the Abrahamic family of faith since each faith claims Abraham as its progenitor. Christianity and Judaism experienced a "parting of the ways" during the inception and development of Christianity. Islam emerged as a further prophecy and self perceived clarification of earlier prophetic witness in the seventh century. (622 CE) The purpose of this course is to explore initial family relationships, what factors contributed to the emergence of separate communities of belief and practice, often in conflict with one another despite their common ancestry, and the role played by these conflicts in the shaping of critical historic periods. Today deep issues of religious identity that are either specific to this family of faiths or particularly exacerbated by the nature of the relationships between them are at the heart of current political and military tensions in the Middle East and elsewhere. The inter- religious team that teaches this course will explore the social and religious dynamics of these situations, drawing upon the different but related traditions of scripture, comparative religion, theology, mysticism, history, philosophy, diplomacy and law. It is clear that Abrahamic family relations will have enormous implications for the shaping of the 21st century for good or for ill. * This course title is taken from the Fetzer Institute Project of this name and is being developed with their encouragement. II. Grading Students are to write three papers: 1. First “Impressions” Paper (c. 5 pp. double-spaced with endnotes and bibliography as appropriate): How do you understand the role of your faith with respect to the other Abrahamic traditions? (Due on October 14.) 2. “Case Study” Paper (c. 5 pp. double-spaced with endnotes and bibliography as appropriate): This paper should develop a case study of the role of religion in relation to a particular theological disagreement or conflict. Your case study should offer a brief narrative of the conflict, a summary of the main points of 2 contention to date, and a proposal for how to work through the issues under consideration and with the parties in dispute, together with religious participation. (Due no later than November 18.) 3. Final “Summary” Paper (c. 10 pp. double-spaced with endnotes and bibliography as appropriate). This paper can be a research paper of your choice on a topic to be worked out with one of the course instructors. (Due on December 16.) Active participation in all aspects of the course and its readings is presumed. Each week attention will be given to items from the suggested reading list, for which class participants will write short content summaries for brief presentation in class. III. Field Work Class participants are expected to attend at least one of the following events. If unable to fulfill, alternative experiences will be developed with the course instructors. (A one page paper will be asked from each student with a summary of reflections on the nature of one such event attended.) An iftar at the Roxbury Islamic Center during Ramadan (during September this year) A synagogue visit Christ the King celebration, St. Paul’s Church, Cambridge, Sunday Nov. 22, 11:00 AM. A Protestant service, to be decided (Reformation Sunday, Nov. 1?) IV. Websites and Related Organizations Class website – under construction: Most required readings, apart from course texts, should be online by January 2009: https://cms.bc.edu/ Center for the Study of World Religions: http://www.hds.harvard.edu/cswr/ Boston Theological Institute: www.bostontheological.org Fetzer Institute: http://www.fetzer.org/ Inter-Religious Center on Public Life: http://www.interreligiouscenter.org/ Islamic Council of New England: http://www.islamiccouncilne.org/ Others to be added V. Schedule of Classes 1) Sept. 9 Introduction to the Course (Petersen and team) Course Syllabus 2 3 Basic Texts and Scripture: Thoughts on The Tanach, The Bible and The Qur’an Methodologies of Faith Propagation (Historical, Conventional and Contemporary Models of Mission) Three levels on which inter-faith understanding must rise or fall: the personal, which involves dialogue with one’s neighbors but also asking oneself what the experience of the HOLY maybe; the academic and the official. Thoughts on Genesis 25 Suggested Reading: Many course readings may be obtained from the class website beginning in January 2008. Rothbart, Daniel, and Korostelina, Karina, eds., Identity, Morality, and Threat: Studies in Violent Conflict (Lexington Books, 2007). Read Chapter 14: Montville, Joseph. “Reconciliation as Realpolitik: Facing the Burdens of History in Political Conflict Resolution” Qur’an, Surah 3: Al ‘Imran Karen Armstrong, A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam (Ballantine Books, 1994): Begin to read the book. A book to be read through the context of the course: See bibliography, “Basic Introductions,” for books you may wish to read through the context of this course and thereafter. Scriptural material about Abraham; take any version of the Bible, Tanach or Qur’an or you may choose to read the new translation of the same as found in David Rosenberg, Abraham. The First Historical Biography (New York: Basic Books, 2006). 2) Sept.16 Biblical Roots: Tendencies Toward Supersessionism: Understanding the Covenant. The Pauline Heritage – Romans 10: 5-8; 9-11; Genesis 17 (led by Seltzer, Petersen and team) Who are the Children of Abraham? Tensions within “Judaisms”: “Pharisaic Movement-become- Rabbinic Judaism-become Judaism” The Pauline Heritage (Jesus and Paul): “Jesus’ Movement- become-Christianity;” or “Christianities” A Muslim Perspective on Judaism and Christianity: corrective supercessionism. A Parting of the Ways: The Second to the Fourth Centuries (Helmick and the team) 3 4 Texts: Romans 2:25-29; Acts 15 Orthodoxy and Heresy Rabbinic Tradition Required Reading: Daniel Boyarin, Border Lines: The Partition of Judaism and Christianity (Philadelphia: University of Penn Press, 2006 ed.), pp. 1-86 Boys, Mary C. Has God Only One Blessing? Judaism As a Source of Christian Self Understanding (New York: Paulist Press, 2000), pp. 5-85; pp. 138-148 Qur’an, Surah 20: Ta Ha Suggested Additional Reading: Daniel Boyarin, Border Lines: The Partition of Judaism and Christianity (Philadelphia: University of Penn Press, 2004), pp. 89-228. Raymond Helmick, “How Can A Catholic Respond, in Faith, to the Faith of Muslims” Sandmel, A Jewish Understanding of the New Testament; see also, We Jews and Jesus (Oxford, 1965). Shaye J.D. Cohen, The Beginnings of Jewishness (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999), ch 2-5 Shaye Cohen, Why aren’t Jewish Women Circumcised: Gender and Covenant in Judaism (University of California Press, 2005). Richard Rubenstein, When Jesus Became God: The Epic Fight over Christ's Divinity in the Last Days of Rome (New York: Harcourt, 1999). 3) Sept. 23 The Politics of the Orthodox Empire and the Birth of Islam (Petersen and team) History and Interpretation: Acts 1:8 The Monophysite Controversy The Politics of Empire Required Reading: Jeremy Johns, “Christianity and Islam,” in The Oxford History of Christianity, ed. John McManners (New York: Oxford, 1990/2002): pp. 167-204. Colin Chapman, Cross and Crescent. Responding to the Challenge of Islam (Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 2ned ed., 2007): 73-111, 127-148. John Meyendorff, The Byzantine Legacy in the Orthodox Church (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1982): 89-114. 4 5 Suggested Additional Reading: George Every, Understanding Eastern Christianity (London: SCM Press, 1980): 53-84. Steven Wasserstrom, Between Muslim and Jew: The Problem of Symbiosis Under Early Islam (Princeton, 1995). Irfan Shahid, “Byzantium and the Islamic World,” in Byzanatium. A World Civilization, ed. by Angeliki Laiou and Henry Maguire (Washington, D.C,: Dumbarton Oaks, 1992): 49-60. 4) Sept. 30 Islamic Ummah, Carolingian idea of Christendom and the Jewish Diaspora: Issues of Community and Identity (Mohamed and team) Division and Unity in the Traditions Bogomil and Catholic/Orthodox Sunni and Shia Jewish Equivalences Christmas 800, coronation of Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor, setting the stage for the Western dispute between Papacy and Empire DVD: “Islam: The Empire of Faith” Required Reading: Abdurrahman Al-Sheha, Muhammad the Messenger of Allah (King Fahd National Library, 2005). Mark R. Cohen, Under Crescent and Cross: The Jews in the Middle Ages (Princeton, 1994). Judith Herrin, The Formation of Christendom (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989): 445-480; if time see also pp. 390-444. Miri Reuben: Gentile Tales – The Narrative Assault on Late Medieval Jews (Philadelphia: University of Penn, 2004). Suggested Additional Reading: Efraim Karsh, Islamic Imperialism: A History (New Haven: Yale University Press (April 26, 2006) Jacob Katz, Jewish Society at the End of the Middle Ages (Schocken Books, 1971) Hugh Kennedy, The Byzantine and Early Islamic Near East. Variorum Collected Studies (Ashgate Publishing, 2006) Ivan Marcus, Rituals of Childhood: Jewish Acculturation in Medieval Europe (Yale University